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How about any team that has at least two players test positive within a 24 month period be banned from the playoffs for 2 years, has their national TV money taken away, and the entire front office is suspended for a year from organized baseball?

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: January 31, 2013 at 10:50 AM (#4358906)
Too soft. First offense, the player should be dipped into a vat of scalding water, second offense they should be put in a catapult and vaulted into a pool of sharks.

How about a two-year suspension, elimination from Hall of Fame eligibility and wiping every statistic out of the record books?

I'm never quite sure what people are suggesting with that last little offering. Is Bud Selig going to call up Sean Forman and threaten him unless he takes Colon's numbers off of bb-ref? There's no such thing as a "record book" any more.

My understanding is that testing now is done by random selection. Under this system, the guilty party would serve his sentence and then be permanently on parole.

Wasn't there a story in the last couple years where Jose Bautista was selected to be tested several times due to all the home runs? I don't remember the specifics, but I recall a discussion about how at least some of the testing wasn't random at all.

Having said that, if Selig really wants to clean up the game he needs to up the ante on the risk his players will be taking if they decide to cheat.

How about a two-year suspension, elimination from Hall of Fame eligibility and wiping every statistic out of the record books? It might make players think twice before they dope. Remember the Black Sox? Pete Rose? No one thinks that baseball games are fixed because everyone fears the punishment.

Are we extending this to Andy Pettitte? Because I don't see much hand-wringing over the fact he missed an entire year, admitted to using PEDs, came back to pitch very well in twelve starts last year at age 40, and is back at age 41 - older than Colon - with a 3.95 ERA in 11 starts.

Are we extending this to Andy Pettitte? Because I don't see much hand-wringing over the fact he missed an entire year, admitted to using PEDs, came back to pitch very well in twelve starts last year at age 40, and is back at age 41 - older than Colon - with a 3.95 ERA in 11 starts.

Are we extending this to Andy Pettitte? Because I don't see much hand-wringing over the fact he missed an entire year, admitted to using PEDs, came back to pitch very well in twelve starts last year at age 40, and is back at age 41 - older than Colon - with a 3.95 ERA in 11 starts.

Andy is a True Yankee who only takes drugs to restore his natural ability.

Other than this column, I don't believe there has been an uproar over Colon''s potential All-Star status. I doubt anyone is losing any sleep over it, much less having nightmares. If he's still pitching like he is now at the end of the season, folks will start paying attention.

How about if after a player has been suspended once, for the remainder of his career that player can be asked to submit to a test at any time without any notice.

My understanding is that testing now is done by random selection. Under this system, the guilty party would serve his sentence and then be permanently on parole.

Everybody is tested in spring training, everybody has at least one random test during the season, some players are randomly chosen for testing throughout the year (including the off-season) and any player can be subjected to testing throughout the year with "reasonable cause". "Reasonable cause" is based on evidence of use, possession or sale/distribution within the last 12 months. Colon is almost surely pissing in a cup on a fairly regular basis and if he's not it's because MLB didn't ask for the right to do so.

The allowable number of additional random tests is 1400 (i.e. the extra ones, not the ones everybody takes). In any given year, about 1300 players will play in the majors, many of them having spent a good chunk of the year subject to the stricter testing in the minors. If those 1400 tests are spread out in a reasonable way, you should have no problem multiply testing a third or so of the "regulars" -- 750 opening day roster spots, so 250 players at about 6 extra tests -- while letting the minors testing catch the non-regulars. (I didn't notice any restrictions in the JDA about how those 1400 can be spread out among players other than that they be random. MLB seems to select a group of players and test them multiple times but presumably they could test more players less often.)

The offseason tests are limited to 250 of those 1400 so that might be 1/3 of regulars once.

Everybody also supplies at least one blood sample for HGH testing.

So anybody using in-season is running a pretty substantial risk unless they have stuff that clears the system quickly. Off-season use would be much safer but there's still about a 1 in 3 chance you'll be tested at some point so you still have to hope it's not you at the wrong time of the offseason.

It's not as stringent as the Olympics but it's a reasonably tough policy and definitely one where every player is running a reasonably substantial risk of being tested at an inopportune time. However, the first test is upon arrival at spring training and there's no reason for failing that one other than being an idiot or getting suckered by your supplier into thinking the stuff would have cleared your system by then.

But the HOF does bar people if they are on MLB's permanently ineligible list, so MLB could effectively bar PEDs users from the HOF if they treat them the way MLB treats gamblers...

And from what I remember, the HOF bowed to MLB pressure in making that change after the Pete Rose incident. Prior to that, banned players were still eligible for the HOF, although none had ever come close to election. In other words, if Bud was determined to keep someone out of the HOF, he would likely be successful.

Of course the HoF will do pretty much whatever MLB wants I'm just saying it is not in MLB's power to deny entry to the HoF. Furthermore the author called for a 2-year suspension and ineligibility from the HoF -- so not permanently ineligible for MLB, only for the HoF. I'm pretty sure the author doesn't realize that it's not in MLB's power to deny entry to the HoF.

Also PED usage does not carry a permanent ban from MLB, it carries a potential permanent ban from playing. Special team consulting, coaching and owning are still (theoretically) OK.

Huh. I've long assumed that Bud Selig wakes up every day to his worst nightmare -- looking like Stephen Hawking after a sound thrashing.

But without the cool voice.

How about any team that has at least two players test positive within a 24 month period be banned from the playoffs for 2 years

The Padres are already in compliance with this.

In other words, if Bud was determined to keep someone out of the HOF, he would likely be successful.

Will this come to be known as the Ryan (Braun) Rule? Or will he sneak in on a technicality?

The hell with that. On the extreme off chance I ever make it that far north, those guys had damned well better let me in if I buy my ticket.

Ha! I've already made it past Bud's Banishment Brigade 3 times now! (Seriously, if any of you haven't had the chance yet to make the trip to Cooperstown, you owe it to yourselves to go. It's pretty darned cool!)